Feeding bread to chickens is a common question among owners. Many people want to give bread to their flock because they have leftovers. The answer is that bread is usually not harmful to chickens, but you need to only give it to them in moderation and prepare it correctly.
Can chickens eat bread?
Chickens can have bread. There is nothing in bread that is toxic to chickens. That said, there also aren’t many nutrients in bread that are beneficial for them either.
Can chickens eat mouldy bread?
Chickens should not have any mouldy food and bread is no exception. Unfortunately, mould can cause mycotoxicosis. This is an unpleasant disease for chickens which causes reduced egg production, ulcers and occasionally even death. The main cure for this disease is to prevent
What type of bread can chickens eat?
Chickens can eat white bread, brown bread, wholegrain bread, and sourdough. They are particularly keen on a seeded loaf. You can give chickens fresh bread or stale bread but never bread with mould.
Bread is high in carbohydrate and starch
Bread is that it is high in carbohydrates. While carbs are important to give your chickens, they need a nutritionally rich diet to be healthy and produce eggs.
Because bread is starchy, it can cause issues with the chicken digestive system. Chickens’ stomachs aren’t designed to eat starch, and so they will struggle to digest it.
One problem with this is that makes your flock feel full and this can stop them from eating other more nutritious foods. Another problem is that this can cause diarrhoea.
Bread is high in fibre
Some types of bread, especially wholemeal bread, are high in fibre. While there are some benefits to fibre, it can also cause crop impaction. This is where food gets stuck in the crop. The crop is a small area at the top of a chicken’s throat where they store the food before it moves to their stomach. Some fibrous foods can get stuck here. This means the chickens will struggle to eat.
Bread is low in nutrients
Although it has plenty of carbohydrates and fibre, it does not contain the vitamins, protein or calcium chickens need. As a result, it is best to only give chickens bread in small amounts.
How to prepare bread for chickens
The most important thing to remember when preparing bread for chickens is that we want to avoid crop impaction. That means you should not serve big lumps of bread to your chickens. If you tear down the bread into tiny pieces, you can toss these to your chickens. Another way of making bread safer is to soak it in water before giving it to your chickens. This means it won’t absorb water and expand once it reaches the crop.
Do chickens like bread?
When I was young, I used to love walking to the local canal to feed the ducks. Just like those ducks, chickens crave bread. Anecdotally, chickens prefer brown and seeded loves to white bread, but they will eat all kinds.
Summary
To conclude, chickens can eat bread but bread is not the best food to give to your flock That said, if you have some leftover bread once in a while, it shouldn’t cause too many problems to give it to your chickens. Chickens, like many other birds, like eating bread, and as long as you keep it as an irregular treat, your chickens will stay healthy. The key things to remember are to never give chickens mouldy bread and to break down bread into small pieces to avoid digestive problems.